That might sound silly and obvious, but as a video producer, you always have to question what the audience will respond to so you can deliver.

Should you spend extra time and money creating flashy graphics or just settle for the cheap and easy plain ones?

During my many years as a video producer, I spoke with hundreds of clients, bosses, co-workers and viewers of all stripes about what they liked or didn't like about a particular video. I've evaluated hundreds of finished video projects, often revamping them to make them better.

All that experience taught me that flashiness is what most impresses people when the video is short. Actually, I was often disappointed to realize how flashiness seemed to work irrespective of any other attributes the video had. Personally, I always favored high quality, in-depth content. Well… I had to learn that most people don't, which is why American Idol has more viewers than a PBS documentary on fish eggs.

Me personally, I love boring documentaries but I am in the minority.

Flashiness can impress people even if the video is lacking in other ways. Now keep in mind that I said flashiness works best in short videos. Something as long as a movie can be extremely flashy but will probably still bomb at the box office if the plot is a snoozer. But it's also true that the shorter the video gets, the more flashiness is a good substitute for “story.”

Flashiness gives people the impression that the video is expensive and high quality. If they think that, they are almost guaranteed to perceive that the information contained in the video is accurate.

Flashiness also keeps people entertained. Whizz-bang graphics and spectacular visuals help keep people awake and attentive to the screen. Sound effects and music do too.

SO USE THEM!!!!!

Back when I freelanced as a video producer in the Nashville market, I got to the point where every video I did was moving, shaking and jiving virtually every single frame because that's what people wanted. It made them believe my videos were sophisticated and valuable.

Flashy videos capture people's attention more fully. They are impressed and will automatically assume the video is quality. It's impossible not to get absorbed in it because FLASHY VIDEO WORKS!

Guaranteed.

So how do you make your video flashy? Start with some basics, like background music and a nice graphic open. Then, add some spectacular graphics that move. Movement can be accomplished through key framing during editing. You can get pre-made flashy digital backgrounds to use with your graphics. In fact, there is a TON of royalty free flashy video you can use without having to make it from scratch yourself. So even if you are using a very simple editing program like Windows Movie Maker that will not really generate anything too spectacular, you can buy some and import them into the program.

The bottom line is, you do not have to become a master at creating flashy videos by yourself. You can just buy them.

Audiences have been trained to think flashy = good. Just a fact of life folks.

Lorraine Grula
Internet Video Gal